“Of the 1,500 road construction projects underway across Georgia, our construction of the Bridge for Highway 82 over Big Curry Creek was named the best bridge deck steel cover in the State. The bridge deck steel cover is extremely important to the life of the bridge. It eliminates the rusting of the reinforcing steel and adds to the overall structural integrity of the bridge, allowing DOT to save time and labor because of the decreased maintenance required on the bridge,” explained Brent Cook, District Engineer.

Billy Cantrell, Georgia DOT Construction Consultant, worked diligently with Pittman Construction Company, the project’s contractor, to ensure the project was completed to the highest possible standards. Cook continued, “If we are going to get in the road and inconvenience the motorists and spend the money, we need to make sure our work is exacting and that is just what Billy and his team did. We are very proud of their work in Jefferson.”

The bridge is part of a larger project that will build a one-way pair system along Kissam and Storey Streets through Downtown Jefferson, improving traffic flow and efficiency. A multi-use trail will be built in Big Curry Park. The project costs $6.9 million by Pittman Construction Company by the contract completion date of August 31, 2016.

Four statewide Construction Awards are given annually by Georgia DOT. Pittman Construction Company won 2 of this year’s awards.

Billy Cantrell is a retired Georgia DOT Employee now Managing Construction Projects through a Consultant Firm. He is a native of White County.

Independent analysis consistently ranks Georgia’s transportation system as being in the best condition of any in the United States, despite the fact that we lag near the bottom of all states in per capita investment in transportation infrastructure. But our highways and bridges are carrying more vehicles than ever; they are aging; and they are becoming more expensive to maintain. More than $500 million is needed for basic bridge maintenance over the next decade and $1.5 billion for routine road repairs over just the next five years. For more information on Georgia DOT, please visit www.dot.ga.gov or subscribe to our Press Release RSS feed.